General Chat

Rose, yes i meant the school providing uniform for the teachers as i have lost count of the clothes i have ruined over the years.

I wouldnt mind paying for it.

patchem, yes i wore a tie from 4-18. 1000 girls did too and 1000 boys next door did also. Did we ever complain? No we daren't as we abided by the school rules.If i arrived without my tie and i never did because my mum checked us before we left, then one from the spare box would be issued until the end of the day and a note would go home to your parents.

You see, we never questioned the authority of the school and its teachers. because they made the rules and they were in charge of the pupils.

Unfortunately today, there are parents and pupils who seem to think they can change the rules to suit and also that nobody can tell them what to do.

Once the discipline was taken away from the teachers(and i dont mean corporal punnishment) the flood gates were opened and now can never be shut.

there's a saying"if you havn't got control of your child by the time they go to school, you never will."

There is now a generation of children who when something breaks, they throw it away and demand a replacement and get it.Some have no manners and claim their parents didn't teach them any and i see that every day.These children will grow up to raise their own children in the same way and who knows how they will turn out.

i brought up my own children according to my means. i did not buy the latest fashions or trainers that cost £100 just to keep up with the jones.I didnt care what others had and it was never an issue in this house.

i now look at those kids who rebelled, didnt wear uniform but the latest gear and compare them to my own. Well I dont brag or boast about my children but my son graduated a few weeks ago and is now studying for a Diploma. My daughter is also at college. Their pals... well where are they you may ask. Dossing around, some got into trouble and some who were spoilt are so arragant and rude i wouldnt employ them. But when they were at school, they had the best of it all and where did it get them...

Peer pressure only exists when you let it.

On a recent school photograph session, one pupil came in a tshirt...ie no shirt and tie. When asked didnt your mum remember you are having school photos today, child replied"who cares" but it let the rest of the class down when their class photo was taken as they looked scruffy.

maybe Im just a bit old fashioned but i stand by what i said.

It's late now so will say
Goodnight.

Really good discussion though, thanks for all the contrubutions

Florence
in the hebrides.

As I said earlier, my daughter went to private school from age 6 to 18 ...........

......... we were amongst the poorest of the parents there.

By the time they got to the age of about 14, many of the girls in her class were wearing only designer clothes out-of-school ............. and they would talk about buying such-and-such a designer coat, blouse or whatever.

My daughter knew we didn't have that much money for "fancies", and was quite happy choosing her one outfit in the spring and one in the Fall. She also made many of her clothes from quite young


But I was really proud of her when she was about 15, and we went to buy the winter outfit ................... she looked along the Sale rack, and pulled out an unlined jacket by one of the "favoured" designers.

She tried it on, and it looked super on her .......... I was getting tempted to splurge, as it was still a bit more expensive than my budget.

BUT she turned it inside out, and started examining the seams, the hems, etc ......................... and then turned to me and said "Mum, I could make one much better than this. It's disgraceful" !!!!! :-D



I taught in an all-girls Grammar School in the UK, admittedly back in the mid-1960s ......................... we were told that we were expected to be role models for the girls, who of course all wore uniform


That meant we were expected to be neat and tidy, and clean!


I taught Biology ................. if the lesson was in a classroom, then I wore my black graduation gown. If it was in the lab, I wore a white lab coat ................. both with the idea of protecting my clothes!


Those were the days of the blackboard and chalk ................ and no-one who has not used those items would know how disastrous the white chalk was to your clothes!




There was no uniform at the CofE primary school that I went to ................ although Mum bought a navy blue gym slip that I had to wear :-)

Most of the kids there were pretty poor, including us, and Mums decided what they could afford ................. Mum thought the gym slip and different tops was it for me!


Then I went to the Grammar School ........... full uniform, lace up shoes and indoor shoes because the school was brand new and had the most beautiful wood parquet flooring.

The teachers all wore their black gowns .......... and I am sure that most of it was for exactly the same reason that we did in the 60s

It was pressure from parents that brought uniform into my son's old school. They put pressure on the Governors, who have far too much power, in my opinion.

The head was opposed to it and eventually resigned. The school was one of the top 10 non-selective state schools in the UK when B was there. 5 years later it had sunk drastically and 10 years later was in special measures. The children all wore uniform, though, so that was all right.

Rose, you flatter me :-D

However, to me it is simply a matter of good manners to make an effort to look respectable when invited to speak to others about something which is important to you - and to them. Not overdressed so that you distract people, nor scruffily dressed which is also distracting, but simply neat, tidy and well presented - as though you care.


I think Sylvia hit the nail on the head with the words 'role model'.


The reasons a choir wears robes is to bring a sense of 'togetherness' to the group; to give a feeling of unity and pride in what they are doing, and to stop the possibility of members vying with each other in the fashion stakes.


One remains unconvinced that the wearing of school uniforms heralds a school slipping into the special measures category somehow. More likely something to do with poor teaching standards :-D

It was to do with the resignation of a brilliant head, Cynthia, brought about by the governors overruling him. The two heads they picked to replace him in succeeding years were useless. They had to sack the first one. Very poor judgement to appoint him in the first place.

Governors don't know what they are doing half of the time, and I say this as someone who has sat on governing bodies of several schools, so I speak from sorry experience.

It isn't about looking respectable, you can look respectable and still be a bit down at heel. It's about dressing appropriately, in my opinion. When I am "public speaking" I wear a "smart" outfit. When I am rolling on the floor with my drama groups I wear jeans. When I used to coach gym I wore a track suit.

School desks ladder tights, especially teachers' desks, so I always wore trousers when I used to teach in schools. It's also more practical when teaching infants and I wore easy care tops because one of the little darlings usually managed to get paint on me so it was "clean on" every day.

That's why a dress code would work better than enforced, expensive uniforms.

A lot of schools have "day glo" waistcoats that they put on children when taking them out for the day so they can be easily spotted. At the zoo recently I saw a school trip and they were all wearing identical baseball caps in bright yellow.

At times like that it's totally appropriate for them all to have the same item of clothing, it doesn't have to be a uniform.

As I said before, teachers have better things to do with their time than check up on what children are wearing.

I agree Guinevere, dressing appropriately is the thing. :-D

Florence says school uniform is not enforced in her area, the Hebrides. That's because it is not permissable to force any child to wear a school uniform anywhere in Scotland other than in a private school. If schools elsewhere in the UK want to enforce such a policy then they should meet the cost of it. Time for teachers to be reminded forcefully that children are their customers, their bread and butter and parents are their employers. A mandatory spell working in the real world with adults would be a revelation for quite a few of them.

May I ask what Denis said?

I agree with school uniform, but as Rollo said, from a generic supplier, not a specialist one.
Has anyone noticed how children's clothes, particularly skirts and shorts, and especially school uniforms, now have elastic with buttonholes so it can be 'let out' at the waist. Okay if you're not extremely slim
This causes a problem for my grandchildren - they are all slim. .
My 12 year old grand daughter is 5'1" tall, and has a 20" waist.
If she gets a skirt that is down to her knees, there's a good metre of 'spare' material around her waist! If she gets a skirt that fits her comfortably around the waist - it's a bit short.

.

what on earth could Denis have said for it to be RR'd????

:-S

Oh gosh, that's a first, dont think i have ever had anyone on a thread of mine RR'd.

Whatever did he say?

Cant say i know denis..is he a newbie?

Florence
in the hebrides :-S

He has posted 599 times, so not a newbie.


Perhaps a cheekie

;-)

Nice one patchem..... :-D

Er, uniform is nothing to do with teachers, Denis. Governors make the policy as you'd know if you'd read previous posts.

Makes a nonsense of the rest of your post which is, in reality, utter nonsense anyway.

actually, I think I'd rather deal with adults than some children :-)



............. that's why I did get out of teaching after I left the UK


I would also add, that I immediately doubled my salary ........... AND I got paid 12 months a year, not 10 months


I wonder if Denis has ever received a double salary at the end of July, and then not had another pay cheque until the end of September???


that's what happened when I was teaching, and I presume it still does.


Nor do I expect that Denis has ever been in a job where it was expected that he take work home, that he work for 2-3 hours every night, and often longer on weekends, and that he was expected to participate in extracurricular activities, such as sports, drama, etc ................. all out of school hours, and for no extra recompense.




BUT this thread was not to do with teachers ..........


......... it was to do with school uniforms, which as Guinevere has so rightly stated, has absolutely nothing to do with the teachers!

It does have everything to do with the governors, and usually a parents' council who may petition the governors to have a uniform, or change it.


Many of the teachers may in fact have school-aged children themselves .............. and possibly even in the same school where they teach.

Well Denis, i take exception to your post.

before i went into helping children with additional support needs, I worked in the "real world" as a banking officer for 15 years. So you dont need to tell me it's the customers who paid my wages.But since when did the children and their parents pay my wages? What rubbish you are talking.

As others have stated this thread was about whether to wear school uniform.

Florence
in the hebrides :-| :-P